The Bison men’s and women’s track and field teams hosted the Gulden Invitational on Jan. 19. Both teams took first place, each in a field of four competitors after the rest of the teams could not travel due to winter weather.

The men’s team won a total of 14 events and qualified for the IC4A Indoor Championship in three events. C.J. Falcioni ’20 was named the meet’s Most Valuable Field Athlete after sweeping the shot put and the weight throw. Billy Melchionni ’19 and Alex Dessoye ’21 led the way on track events, with Melchionni winning the 200-meter event and Dessoye winning the 400.

On the women’s side, 11 event wins propelled the team to a first place finish. Kaitlin Salisbury ’20 broke her own school record in the 60-meter dash at a time of 7.61 seconds. She also won the long jump and qualified for the ECAC meet in the triple jump. Tia Tardy ’21 added a win in the mile with a time of 5:07.69 minutes, and Emily Deschler ’22 finished first in the 5,000 at 18:39.67 minutes.

A select group of athletes will compete in the Penn State National Invite on Jan. 25-26, while the rest of the Orange and Blue will participate in the Bison Open and Multi at Gerhard Fieldhouse.